Rumblings about a possible reunion between the Cowboys and free agent running back Ezekiel Elliott haven’t really died off since the club released him in March.
The volume got turned up as padded practices began in Oxnard this week, with team ownership claiming publicly that the door is still very much open.
With the announcement Monday that veteran running back Ronald Jones will be suspended for the first two games of the 2023 season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, talk among the team’s followers naturally turned to bringing back the the two-time rushing champ.
“A very legitimate question,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told The K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday before cryptically adding, “And we’re reading the tea leaves.”
What Ronald Jones will be able to contribute this season is murky at best.
The former USC Trojan has never had a 1,000-yard rushing campaign in five NFL seasons and saw just 17 attempts last year in Kansas City. But his veteran presence was thought to be a benefit for the young platoon of ball carriers currently in Dallas.
“We support him, and we’ll work through this,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said of the situation Tuesday.
Jones’s suspension won’t affect the top of the depth chart for the Dallas backs. Tony Pollard still steps into the lead role for 2023, but is coming off a devastating knee and ankle injury suffered just over six months ago. Behind him is a stable of largely-unproven youngsters. Malik Davis and Rico Dowdle have a combined 45 NFL carries; Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke are true rookies.
McCarthy seems prepared to lean on that crew, at least for this early portion of camp.
“To me, that’s really part of the training camp environment,” the coach told media members on Tuesday. “It’s a young room; we knew that going in. The development of all those guys so far has been impressive. The running back group as whole had a solid day yesterday.”
Jones may continue practicing with the team and can even play in preseason contests, but every rep he gets prior to Week 1 is one less opportunity for a rusher who could be called upon to actually tote the rock on opening night in New York.
“We’ll just continue to develop the room,” McCarthy said.
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But it’s obvious that Elliott could walk back into that room pretty seamlessly after amassing over 8,200 rushing yards over seven seasons wearing the star. The just-turned 28-year-old spent much of the summer working out with his former Cowboys teammates, but he did meet recently with the New England Patriots. And with injuries already starting to affect the plans of teams like the Seattle Seahawks, it’s entirely possible that Elliott will not be on the open market much longer.
For Jerry Jones, a sudden hole at the position (even if only for just two games), an increased demand for a former star player, and the physical nature of the team’s padded practices all appear to have the billionaire thinking once more about the former first-round draft pick for whom he admittedly has a soft spot.
“All of a sudden, you start thinking about the kinds of things you ought to be thinking about when you’re evaluating at camp,” Jones said of Elliott. “He’s not ruled out at all here.”
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